Crude and oily

摘要

In his farewell address, George Washington gave warning of the dangers of political parties. Whenever possible, he said, each party would "make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction." Mexico's state-run oil company, Pemex, is accustomed to being the victim of ill-concerting, probably because it provides close to 40% of the government's revenue. It is also in decline. Since 2005, daily production has dropped more than 300,000 barrels per day, or some 10% of the total. Reserves have been falling since the mid-1980s.rnSince the beginning of the year, Mexican politicians have been wrapped up in a debate about how to revive Pemex, which controls all aspects of petroleum in Mexico, from offshore exploration to the pump. It is riddled with wastefulness. Mexico has to import over 40% of its petrol because of a lack of refining capacity. It then resells it at subsidised prices to the public. Some $20 billion will be spent on the subsidy this year. It is hard to get rid of, both because of the direct political impact that ending it would have and because of fear of provoking inflation.